Habakkuk (Sunday, the 2nd of October 2016)

[2] O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! [3] Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.

[2] And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. [3] For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. [4] Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

The prophecy of Habakkuk

is all doom. God will raise the Chaldeans against the people!? What Anger! Is this appropriate for a prophet? Well, after all Habakkuk’s vision came true and the people were taken captive by the Chaldeans!

So what were prophets like? What about this:

Isa. 60: 16: Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD [am] thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

So would you have thought

holy men would express themselves like this? After all you wouldn’t accept this kind of language from your own child! So let’s have a closer look at prophets, not only at Habakkuk!

Prophets were ecstatic men and the chapter ‘Ecstasy’ in Greetings from Paradise explains the role of ecstasy in Religion. The Ancients asked themselves, if a person loses control over his or her own body, who has control? The answer was God or another god or goddess. That’s why epileptics were seen as holy people. They don’t have control of their bodies in their fits. So a God must be controlling them. Sex is similar. In a good sexual experience the people engaging in it lose control. It is as if the bodies move without the will of their owners. Therefore sex was an important part in Ancient worship.